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The process of the degeneration of the ALP from a capitalist workers’ party to a capitalist party is at best resulting today in a CAPITALIST workers’ party if not a capitalist party. Shorten is but one indicator of that process. Our task is to win over those who support reform to the side of revolution. Shorten and the rest of his rotten crew might make that task just a little easier.

On asylum seekers Labor has been hoist with their own petard. It would be laughable if it were not so serious. The time has come for Labor to abandon the stink bomb that is their refugee policy and welcome those fleeing war, rape, imprisonment and persecution. I know that will not happen. It is up to refugee activists to continue our long fight to defend asylum seekers. Instead of Labor and Liberal lies, that means, as a start and as Red Cross has shown, telling the truth about our abandoned brothers and sisters and exposing Labor and the government for the liars and criminals they are. It means pointing out too that the government (of whatever neoliberal persuasion) that is attacking workers and the poor also attacks asylum seekers. We are all in this together.

This argument that ASIS made the payments looks like a stitch up so Abbott and Co can hide behind more secrecy. It is always handy to have a secretive fall guy like ASIS who may be outside Australian law in undertaking actions which if anyone else did them would be criminal.

No matter how badly Abbott and co treat asylum seekers, many workers will still have insecure, poorly paid unfulfilling jobs. Joining in the demonisation of refugees won’t change that and only reinforces and assists the very people who create the rotten system that gives us rotten jobs and enables them to worsen our conditions. While the one sided class war the bosses have waged successfully against us cannot go on for ever, mass class struggle isn’t going to break out in the immediate future. Instead we may well see Captain Crook and his listing ship Team Australia win the next election on the back of demonising asylum seekers, MUSLIM!!!!! terrorists and lifestyle choice Aborigines while a pathetic Opposition cheers them on and a cowed labour movement continues its surrender.

Abbott puts short term profit before the health of Australians and before the long term health of the environment and by extension, although he is too blinded by Profit Now! to understand this, the long term survival of his beloved but destructive capitalism.

Instead of Joe Hockey fantasising about the rest of us getting well paid jobs (which is just code for ‘only the rich can afford to live here’) tax the rich and big business to build affordable public housing for the people.